The A’s today sent Vin Mazzaro to minor league camp, after two not so good appearances where he gave up 10 runs in his last 4 1/3 innings.

The rotation is still up in the air with prospects Brett Anderson, Trevor Cahill, Gio Gonzalez, Josh Outman, and non-roster Edgar Gonzalez still very much in the running.

Who wins the final two spots is up to anyone, it seems every week one leapfrogs another, or until one explodes as Mazzaro did. I’m taking bets, anyone have a projected rotation? Anyone dare to make a guarantee?

I will give my predictions after I see the group later this week instead of making educated guesses, but ultimatley, it could come down to early spring favorites, Outman and Gonzalez.

Billy Beane is a mastermind we all know, yet an unlikely off season has people questioning his strategy, “Yeah they have a new offense but their pitching is a question mark.” So does Beane have an answer to those skeptics? Cue Trevor Cahill and Brett Anderson.

We all know the A’s pitching depth in the minor leagues is stacked, full of prospects but when and how will the A’s promote burgeoning stars, Cahill and Anderson? The A’s will need the two pitchers (at some point) in the rotation in order to win this year.

The two top prospects will continue to show their stuff this spring but how will their first taste of the Major Leagues come about? Is there a wrong way to promote a young pitcher? The A’s will need replacements at some time this year due to injury of course (it seems inevitable with their injury history) but who will get the first call and why?

Those are alto of questions to answer in one post so I’ll tackle one or two and let the rest of you take the rest.

In a perfect scenario, the two prospects would emerge onto the big-league scene together successfully, but that’s unlikely. So I’ll say that of the two, Trevor Cahill gets the first nod, and soon after the season starts. Here’s where the trickery comes in. The promotion won’t be injury related. The A’s will need everything they can get out of many of their pitchers in order to compete this year because the current rotation will not sustain the length of a 162 game season. It wont be consistent enough to withstand the adversity of major league hitting so the A’s must constantly rotate the rotation, switching things up, up and down from Sacramento they go…(River Cats) well you now the rest. I’ll continue.

With Cahill’s stuff, he could come up quick and dominate. The league will not know what hit them and it will take a while to get used to Cahill’s stuff, and in the meantime, the A’s could bring up Brett Anderson.

More trickery, Love it!

Yet another unseen stud, further confusing the league’s hitters. If Oakland can effectively alternate pitchers, the A’s could put something spectacular together, at least until the league acquaints itself. Do they have a chance without these pitchers? I don’t know. Oakland has many other prospects as ready as-or more primed-than Anderson and Cahill but these two will ultimately be the “wild card” of the season, with game-changing stuff.

Leave me any intriguing or “regular” ideas to the success of the 2009 Oakland A’s. Leave the boring stuff at the door.